October 25

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Connecticut Gazette (October 25, 1776).

“SAMUEL LOUDON, (Late Printer and Bookseller in NEW YORK).”

When the British invaded New York late in the summer of 1776, Samuel Loudon, a printer and bookseller who was, according to Isaiah Thomas, “decidedly a whig,” decided that it was time to suspend the newspaper he established in January, the New York Packet, and get out of the city.[1]  In an advertisement in the September 2 edition of the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury, he announced that he was “removing his Printing-Office to FISH-KILLS, where the Provincial Congress now resides” because the “City of New-York, is now invaded by a powerful Fleet and Army.”  He advised other “Inhabitants” of the city “to seek a Retreat ion the Country.”  He resumed publication of the New York Packet in Fishkill on January 16, 1777, and continued printing it there throughout the war.  After the war ended, Loudon returned to New York and once again published his newspaper there.

Before he managed to resume printing the New York Packet in Fishkill, Loudon got involved in another venture.  The October 25, 1776, edition of the Connecticut Gazette, published in New London, carried an advertisement that announced that “SAMUEL LOUDON, (Late Printer and Bookseller in NEW YORK) Has just opened in NORWICH” a store that stocked a “large Assortment of Books, In Divinity, History, Physic,” and other subjects as well as “a variety of Pamphlets.”  At first glance, it appeared that Loudon operated the store himself.  After all, his name appeared in capital letters as the deadline for the advertisement.  On closer inspection, however, readers learned that “Mr. Eliphalet Huntington” sold the books, pamphlets, maps, prints, and “a Set of Globes, of the best Construction” listed in the advertisement.  Loudon and Huntington apparently entered some sort of partnership, perhaps on an equal basis or perhaps Loudon employed Huntington.  Whatever the arrangement, they attempted to leverage the visibility that Loudon had achieved as a bookseller and, especially, the printer of the New York Packet, to entice prospective customers to visit the bookstore in Norwich or to send orders for any of the items listed in the advertisement.  Curiously, the advertisement that ran in the Norwich Packet on October 21 did not mention Eliphalet Huntington at all.  It deployed Loudon’s name as the headline, like the advertisement in the Connecticut Gazette, and stated that he “Has just opened at Col. JEDEDIAH HUNTINGTON’S Store … A Neat Assortment of BOOKS, to be Sold cheap.”  Perhaps Huntington was merely an employee rather than even a junior partner.  If that was the case, then, like so many artisans who received sole credit for the work of journeymen, apprentices, enslaved workers, and others who labored in their workshops, the proprietor of the new bookstore in Norwich was the public face of the business even though customers primarily or exclusively interacted with an employee.

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[1] Isaiah Thomas, The History of Printing in America with a Biography of Printers and an Account of Newspapers (1810; New York: Weathervane Books, 1970), 482.

Slavery Advertisements Published October 25, 1776

Carl Robert Keyes Slavery Adverts 250 Project

The Slavery Adverts 250 Project chronicles the role of newspaper advertising in perpetuating slavery in the era of the American Revolution. The project seeks to reveal the ubiquity of slavery in eighteenth-century life from New England to Georgia by republishing advertisements about enslaved people – for sale as individuals or in groups, wanted to purchase or for hire for short periods, runaways who liberated themselves, and those who were subsequently captured and confined in jails and workhouses – in daily digests on this site as well as in real time via the @SlaveAdverts250 Twitter feed, utilizing twenty-first-century media to stand in for the print media of the eighteenth century.

The project aims to provide modern audiences with a sense of just how often colonizers encountered these advertisements in their daily lives. Enslaved men, women, and children appeared in print somewhere in the colonies almost every single day. Those advertisements served as a constant backdrop for social, cultural, economic, and political life in colonial and revolutionary America. Colonizers who did not purport to own enslaved people were still confronted with slavery as well as invited to maintain the system by purchasing enslaved men, women, and children or assisting in the capture of so-called “runaways” who sought to free themselves from bondage. The frequency of these newspaper advertisements suggests just how embedded slavery was in colonial and revolutionary American culture in everyday interactions beyond the printed page.

These advertisements also testify to the experiences of enslaved men, women, and children, though readers must consider that those experiences have been remediated through descriptions offered by enslavers rather than enslaved people themselves. Often unnamed in the advertisements, enslaved men, women, and children were not invisible or unimportant in early America.

These advertisements appeared in revolutionary American newspapers 250 years ago today.

Connecticut Gazette (October 25, 1776).

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Essex Journal (October 25, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (October 25, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (October 25, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (October 25, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (October 25, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (October 25, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (October 25, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (October 25, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (October 25, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (October 25, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (October 25, 1776).

October 24

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , , , ,

What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Continental Journal (October 24, 1776).

“Low’s Almanack for 1777, Being the first of American Independence.”

As they had often done before the Revolutionary War, Thomas and John Fleet and John Gill once again collaborated on printing, advertising, and selling an almanac in the fall of 1777.  The October 24, 1776, edition of Gills newspaper, the Continental Journal, carried an advertisement that announced that “Low’s Almanack for 1777” would be published and available for sale on the following Monday.  It was one of the first advertisements for an almanac published anywhere in the new nation that included a list of the contents to entice prospective customers.  The material that the Fleets and Gill included in their new almanac and in the advertisement resonated with the revolution that readers were experiencing.

To start, the printers promoted “Low’s Almanack for 1777, Being the first of American Independence.”  During the colonial era, the year had often been paired with the number of years the monarch had reigned.  Rather than set that practice aside, the Fleets and Gill adapted it to reflect the founding of the nation.  They also asserted that the contents included “every Thing necessary for an Almanack: together with a neat Plan comprehending a View of the present Seat of War at and New-York.”  Less than two months after British forces occupied New York, this almanac came with a print that depicted “General Washington’s Lines – Fort at Powles’s Hook – Bunker-Hill near the City – King’s Bridge – Hell-Gate – Fort Constitution – Mount Washington – Governor’s Island – and part of Long Island, Staten Island and the Jersies.”  Such an image would have been helpful for readers in understanding recent events.  It was also part of the commodification of people and events connected to the American Revolution that had begun during the imperial crisis.  Even before the war, printers, booksellers, artists produced, marketed, and sold a variety of prints, pamphlets, and other items that celebrated political leaders who supported the American cause, such as William Pitt and Samuel Adams, or commemorated events like the Boston Massacre.  In addition, the advertisement listed other contents of the almanac, including short essays on “Rules and Reflections for the Conduct of Life, “How to get Riches,” and “an Address to the Tories.”  A good dose of politics and current events accompanied the practical information in the almanac.  The Fleets and Gill believed that bonus material would help sell “Low’s Almanack for 1777, Being the first of American Independence.”

Slavery Advertisements Published October 24, 1776

Carl Robert Keyes Slavery Adverts 250 Project

The Slavery Adverts 250 Project chronicles the role of newspaper advertising in perpetuating slavery in the era of the American Revolution. The project seeks to reveal the ubiquity of slavery in eighteenth-century life from New England to Georgia by republishing advertisements about enslaved people – for sale as individuals or in groups, wanted to purchase or for hire for short periods, runaways who liberated themselves, and those who were subsequently captured and confined in jails and workhouses – in daily digests on this site as well as in real time via the @SlaveAdverts250 Twitter feed, utilizing twenty-first-century media to stand in for the print media of the eighteenth century.

The project aims to provide modern audiences with a sense of just how often colonizers encountered these advertisements in their daily lives. Enslaved men, women, and children appeared in print somewhere in the colonies almost every single day. Those advertisements served as a constant backdrop for social, cultural, economic, and political life in colonial and revolutionary America. Colonizers who did not purport to own enslaved people were still confronted with slavery as well as invited to maintain the system by purchasing enslaved men, women, and children or assisting in the capture of so-called “runaways” who sought to free themselves from bondage. The frequency of these newspaper advertisements suggests just how embedded slavery was in colonial and revolutionary American culture in everyday interactions beyond the printed page.

These advertisements also testify to the experiences of enslaved men, women, and children, though readers must consider that those experiences have been remediated through descriptions offered by enslavers rather than enslaved people themselves. Often unnamed in the advertisements, enslaved men, women, and children were not invisible or unimportant in early America.

These advertisements appeared in revolutionary American newspapers 250 years ago today.

Continental Journal (October 24, 1776).

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Maryland Gazette (October 24, 1776).

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Maryland Gazette (October 24, 1776).

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Maryland Gazette (October 24, 1776).

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Maryland Gazette (October 24, 1776).

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Pennsylvania Evening Post (October 24, 1776).

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Supplement to the Pennsylvania Evening Post (October 24, 1776).

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Supplement to the Pennsylvania Evening Post (October 24, 1776).

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Supplement to the Pennsylvania Evening Post (October 24, 1776).

October 23

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Massachusetts Spy (October 23, 1776).

“HANNON’s BEST CHOCOLATE, Exceeding Fine.”

A standard run for most newspaper advertisements published during the era of the American Revolution consisted of three or four insertions.  When colophons listed the fees for advertising, the printers offered packages with a set fee for setting the type and running an advertisement that many time.  Of course, advertisers could run their notices more than three or four times, incurring a new fee for each additional insertion.  Most opted for the standard package and then discontinued their notices.

Such was the case with an advertisement for “HANNON’s BEST CHOCOLATE” that ran in the Massachusetts Spy on October 9, 16, and 23, 1776.  Except for patent medicines, few products had brand names in the eighteenth century, yet the advertiser expected prospective customers to recognize the name of the maker of this “Exceeding Fine” chocolate “Sold opposite the TOWN-HOUSE, in Worcester.”  Those who wanted more information could “Enquire of the Printers.”

The advertisement moved around within the Massachusetts Spy.  The first time it appeared, it ran at the top of the first column on the first page, immediately above “PAPERS … published by the order of CONGRESS” in Philadelphia.  The rest of the content on that page consisted of an “Extract of a letter from General Washington to the PRESIDENT of CONGRESS” and other updates about the British invasion and occupation of New York.  The following week, it ran on the final page, two-thirds of the way down the middle column.  For its final insertion, it appeared at the top of the last column on the last page.

No matter where the advertisement ran in the Massachusetts Spy, it was easy to spot.  The advertiser arranged with the printers to have the notice for this “Exceeding Fine” and “BEST CHOCOLATE” enclosed within a border of decorative type.  That distinguished the advertisement from all the other content – advertisements, news, letters – in the newspaper since no other items received similar treatment.  The printing ornaments made it easy for readers to spot, even when it appeared in the middle of columns of dense text in the October 16 issue.  The border drew the eyes of readers and demanded they give their attention to the advertisement.  Although it ran only three times, the advertisement for “HANNON’s BEST CHOCOLATE” likely made an impression on readers of the Massachusetts Spy.

Slavery Advertisements Published October 23, 1776

Carl Robert Keyes Slavery Adverts 250 Project

The Slavery Adverts 250 Project chronicles the role of newspaper advertising in perpetuating slavery in the era of the American Revolution. The project seeks to reveal the ubiquity of slavery in eighteenth-century life from New England to Georgia by republishing advertisements about enslaved people – for sale as individuals or in groups, wanted to purchase or for hire for short periods, runaways who liberated themselves, and those who were subsequently captured and confined in jails and workhouses – in daily digests on this site as well as in real time via the @SlaveAdverts250 Twitter feed, utilizing twenty-first-century media to stand in for the print media of the eighteenth century.

The project aims to provide modern audiences with a sense of just how often colonizers encountered these advertisements in their daily lives. Enslaved men, women, and children appeared in print somewhere in the colonies almost every single day. Those advertisements served as a constant backdrop for social, cultural, economic, and political life in colonial and revolutionary America. Colonizers who did not purport to own enslaved people were still confronted with slavery as well as invited to maintain the system by purchasing enslaved men, women, and children or assisting in the capture of so-called “runaways” who sought to free themselves from bondage. The frequency of these newspaper advertisements suggests just how embedded slavery was in colonial and revolutionary American culture in everyday interactions beyond the printed page.

These advertisements also testify to the experiences of enslaved men, women, and children, though readers must consider that those experiences have been remediated through descriptions offered by enslavers rather than enslaved people themselves. Often unnamed in the advertisements, enslaved men, women, and children were not invisible or unimportant in early America.

These advertisements appeared in revolutionary American newspapers 250 years ago today.

Pennsylvania Gazette (October 23, 1776).

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Pennsylvania Gazette (October 23, 1776).

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Pennsylvania Journal (October 23, 1776).

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Pennsylvania Journal (October 23, 1776).

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Pennsylvania Journal (October 23, 1776).

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Pennsylvania Journal (October 23, 1776).

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Pennsylvania Journal (October 23, 1776).

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Pennsylvania Journal (October 23, 1776).

October 22

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Pennsylvania Evening Post (October 22, 1776).

“THE curious in ancient literary works on the ART of HEALING … may not purchase [a] variety of Latin authors.”

Robert Bell, one of the most prominent American printers and booksellers during the era of the American Revolution, achieved his reputation, in part, through advertising extensively.  Advertisements for books and pamphlets that he printed or sold regularly appeared in newspapers published in Philadelphia, where he ran a “book-store, next door to St. Paul’s church, in Third-street,” in 1776.  Before the war, he frequently inserted subscription proposals for books he intended to publish if enough customers subscribed (or reserved copies in advance) in newspapers from New England to South Carolina.  That made him a familiar figure to readers throughout the colonies.  In 1776, however, he confined his advertising mostly to Philadelphia.

In an advertisement that ran in the October 22, 1776, edition of the Pennsylvania Evening Post, Bell targeted prospective customers interested in medical texts.  He had a special flair for describing both himself and his customers.  For instance, he had previously named himself “the Provedore to the Sentimentalists.”  In this advertisement, Bell addressed the “curious in ancient literary works on the ART of HEALING,” informing them that they “may now purchase [a] variety of Latin authors.”  In case that subject matter was too obscure, he also promoted alternatives that some readers might have considered more practical.  Bell stocked “a few modern English writers on medicinal and surgical subjects.”

Bell could have left it at that, but he chose to add a nota bene to remind prospective customers that he also sold books from other genres.  “All the military authors lately published may be had at said BELL’s,” he proclaimed, in case readers had not noticed the many advertisements for military manuals that he frequently placed in the Pennsylvania Evening Post and other newspapers.  A reminder certainly did not hurt, he likely reasoned, since so many printers and booksellers also advertised an array of military manuals published in Philadelphia in 1775 and 1776.  For readers not interested in medical texts and military manuals, Bell also offered “numbers of miscellaneous, instructive, and entertaining works, in various branches of literature” that they could browse when they visited his shop.  He intentionally targeted certain readers, while also extending an invitation to all readers to see which books and pamphlets they could purchase at “BELL’s book-store.”

Slavery Advertisements Published October 22, 1776

Carl Robert Keyes Slavery Adverts 250 Project

The Slavery Adverts 250 Project chronicles the role of newspaper advertising in perpetuating slavery in the era of the American Revolution. The project seeks to reveal the ubiquity of slavery in eighteenth-century life from New England to Georgia by republishing advertisements about enslaved people – for sale as individuals or in groups, wanted to purchase or for hire for short periods, runaways who liberated themselves, and those who were subsequently captured and confined in jails and workhouses – in daily digests on this site as well as in real time via the @SlaveAdverts250 Twitter feed, utilizing twenty-first-century media to stand in for the print media of the eighteenth century.

The project aims to provide modern audiences with a sense of just how often colonizers encountered these advertisements in their daily lives. Enslaved men, women, and children appeared in print somewhere in the colonies almost every single day. Those advertisements served as a constant backdrop for social, cultural, economic, and political life in colonial and revolutionary America. Colonizers who did not purport to own enslaved people were still confronted with slavery as well as invited to maintain the system by purchasing enslaved men, women, and children or assisting in the capture of so-called “runaways” who sought to free themselves from bondage. The frequency of these newspaper advertisements suggests just how embedded slavery was in colonial and revolutionary American culture in everyday interactions beyond the printed page.

These advertisements also testify to the experiences of enslaved men, women, and children, though readers must consider that those experiences have been remediated through descriptions offered by enslavers rather than enslaved people themselves. Often unnamed in the advertisements, enslaved men, women, and children were not invisible or unimportant in early America.

These advertisements appeared in revolutionary American newspapers 250 years ago today.

Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet (October 22, 1776).

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Freeman’s Journal (October 22, 1776).

October 21

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Boston-Gazette (October 21, 1776).

“THE Publisher of this Paper being determined to remove to Boston during the Course of next Week.”

In the October 21, 1776, edition of the Boston-Gazette and Country Journal, Benjamin Edes announced his intention to return to Boston.  For more than a year, Edes had been printing the Boston-Gazette in nearby Watertown.  For two decades, Edes and John Gill published the Boston-Gazette in Boston, acquiring the newspaper from Samuel Kneeland and distributing their first issue on April 7, 1755.  During the imperial crisis, the Boston-Gazette gained a reputation for supporting the American cause.  Edes and Gill printed their final issue on Apri 17, 1775.  Two days later, the Revolutionary War began with the battles at Lexington and Concord.  Edes and Gill suspended publication of the Boston-Gazette.  At the time, every other newspaper in Boston ceased or suspended publication or moved out of the city.  Isaiah Thomas, for instance, moved the Massachusetts Spy to Worcester.  During the siege of Boston, Edes and Gill dissolved their partnership.  Edes relocated to Watertown, where the Massachusetts Provincial Congress met, and continued printing the Boston-Gazette there on June 5, 1775.  He retained the title and numbering following a suspension that lasted nearly two months.

After the British evacuated from Boston in March 1776, Edes and the Boston-Gazette remained in Watertown for more than half a year.  In late October, the printer ran advertisement announcing that he was “determined to remove to Boston during the Course of next Week.”  He hoped to maintain as many subscribers as possible, yet he also requested that “all those it will not accommodate to continue [as] his Customers there, to settle their arrears” to keep his ledgers in order.  Edes did not manage to “remove to Boston” within the week, but he did make it there within two weeks of running his notice.  The October 28 edition of the Boston-Gazette was the last one to feature “Printed by BENJAMIN EDES, in WATERTOWN” in the masthead.  Keeping to the weekly publication schedule, he printed the next issue in Boston on November 4, 1776.

Since December 21, 1719, the Boston-Gazette had been printed in Boston.  Initially, it had been printed by James Franklin and published by William Brooker.  The newspaper changed hands several times over the next five decades, but it remained in continuous publication.  It was one of the few American newspapers that did not suspend publication while the Stamp Act was in effect, yet the outbreak of hostilities caused Edes and Gill to dissolve their partnership and, after a brief hiatus, Edes continued the newspapers in Watertown.  The war continued, but Edes prepared to return the Boston-Gazette to Boston in late October 1776.

Slavery Advertisements Published October 21, 1776

Carl Robert Keyes Slavery Adverts 250 Project

The Slavery Adverts 250 Project chronicles the role of newspaper advertising in perpetuating slavery in the era of the American Revolution. The project seeks to reveal the ubiquity of slavery in eighteenth-century life from New England to Georgia by republishing advertisements about enslaved people – for sale as individuals or in groups, wanted to purchase or for hire for short periods, runaways who liberated themselves, and those who were subsequently captured and confined in jails and workhouses – in daily digests on this site as well as in real time via the @SlaveAdverts250 Twitter feed, utilizing twenty-first-century media to stand in for the print media of the eighteenth century.

The project aims to provide modern audiences with a sense of just how often colonizers encountered these advertisements in their daily lives. Enslaved men, women, and children appeared in print somewhere in the colonies almost every single day. Those advertisements served as a constant backdrop for social, cultural, economic, and political life in colonial and revolutionary America. Colonizers who did not purport to own enslaved people were still confronted with slavery as well as invited to maintain the system by purchasing enslaved men, women, and children or assisting in the capture of so-called “runaways” who sought to free themselves from bondage. The frequency of these newspaper advertisements suggests just how embedded slavery was in colonial and revolutionary American culture in everyday interactions beyond the printed page.

These advertisements also testify to the experiences of enslaved men, women, and children, though readers must consider that those experiences have been remediated through descriptions offered by enslavers rather than enslaved people themselves. Often unnamed in the advertisements, enslaved men, women, and children were not invisible or unimportant in early America.

These advertisements appeared in revolutionary American newspapers 250 years ago today.

Connecticut Courant (October 21, 1776).

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New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury [New York] (October 21, 1776).

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New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury [New York] (October 21, 1776).

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New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury [New York] (October 21, 1776).

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New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury [New York] (October 21, 1776).